In my memory, the images from Salvador and Naples sometimes get confused. Both cities have a mixture of the modern and the decrepit, a bustling present that embraces and collides with a rich history, a jumble of people and animals and sounds and colors and smells. And they both have the same reputation as dangerous places where tourists can easily become prey to professionals in the field of illegal wealth redistribution. Fortunately, Naples did not live up to this classification and Salvador even refuted it, as you can read:
On our last day in Salvador, I took a taxi to the Cemitério do Campo Santo to take photos for my cemetery project. When I was finished I went to check the time in my cellphone, but I couldn’t find it (along with my driver’s license and a credit card that live in the phone’s case) in my backpack. I had not used it in the cemetery, but I still went back to a few of the spots where I had stopped, just in case. Nothing. Then I went to the main office to see if someone had found it and brought it there. Nope. Having run out of options, I got into another taxi and asked the driver to take me back to the taxi stand where I had taken the first one, because my last hope was that I had left my phone in it. This second driver and the others at the taxi stand tried to get me to describe my first driver, but all I could remember was a pink t-shirt and a tanned hairy arm, not particularly tanned or particularly hairy. I had not seen the man’s face; the only thing I had told him was the cemetery address and the only thing he had told me was how much the ride was; and of course I had not noticed the taxi number. The men told me to wait there with them, because the guy was bound to come back sooner or later. As new taxis arrived, their drivers were informed by the departing ones about my situation, so that the story would be kept alive. After half an hour and an acai popsicle (they are to die for!), I went to the ship to get Steve, who was probably getting worried, and we both returned to the taxi stand to wait for a little longer, with the idea of canceling my phone and credit card services if they didn’t appear soon. As we were approaching the stand, the hand at the end of tanned a hairy arm in a pink shirt worn by my favorite taxi driver in the world was waving my cellphone in its red case. “You need to be more careful in Salvador! This is a very dangerous city! You are a very lucky woman!” yelled my hero in Portuguese. I am lucky indeed.
To conclude, based on my experience, if you ever consider inadvertently losing anything anywhere, go ahead and travel to Salvador and get into Pereira’s taxi. You won’t regret it!
Other suggestions I have for you based on our visit:
Take the funicular to the top part of the city, where most of the fun stuff is. (Don’t forget to notice the wavy pattern on the streets, reminiscent of Lisbon!)
Stuff your face with street food, especially acarajés, a dish that has African roots and consists of big balls made out of ground black-eyed peas, deep fried and stuffed with vegetables, shrimp, caruru (a tomato sauce)... African influences are very important in Salvador, where 79% of the population descends from former African slaves.
Try to find one square inch of undecorated space in one of the most utterly baroque churches in the entire world: São Francisco da Bahia.
Refresh yourself with some coconut water served in its original container.
Get Francisco to make you a fresh flower or an insect out of grass. (If you have a husband with you, have Francisco tease him a little.)
Check out the house of one of Brazil’s most famous writers, Jorge Amado, who happens to be the author of the first book I ever read in Portuguese. They have a nice café where you can have some delicious pastries.
Watch a street performance of capoeira, a combination of martial arts, dance and music that was developed in the 16th century by African slaves in Brazil as a way to learn how to fight without raising the suspicions of their “owners,” who thought it was just some innocuous dance. (If you have a husband with you, have the troupe tease him a little.)
Enjoy the profusion of color anywhere you look!